"Equal parts diplomat and advocate, civil servant and CEO, the Secretary-General is a symbol of United Nations ideals and a spokesperson for the interests of the world's peoples."

The position of Secretary-General is one of great importance that requires the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, and a firm commitment to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.

The President of the UN General Assembly and the President of the UN Security Council have invited UN Member States to present candidates with proven leadership and managerial abilities, extensive experience in international relations, and strong diplomatic, communication and multilingual skills.

The UN is 70 years old.

8 individuals have served as UN Secretary-General

In 2016, the next one will be appointed...

The current list of official candidates can be found on the President of the UN General Assembly's website

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The General Assembly will, "without prejudice to the role of the principle organs as enshrined in Article 97 of the Charter, conduct informal dialogues or meetings with candidates for the position of Secretary-General, without any prejudice to any candidate who does not participate, thus contributing to the transparency and inclusivity of the process."

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ASK THE CANDIDATES

The President of the General Assembly (PGA) has been organizing informal dialogues between UN Member States and UN Secretary-General candidates since April 2016. In addition, a Global Townhall with all candidates for UN Secretary-General will take place on 12 July in the UN General Assembly Hall from 6:30-9:00pm NY time. It will be broadcast live across the world by Al Jazeera media network, made available free to all broadcast media and simultaneously streamed live on UN-WebTV.

The Office of the PGA has requested UN-NGLS to facilitate a process for the global public to provide questions that can be asked to candidates during these dialogues

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS IN WRITING, VIDEO OR AUDIO

#UNSGcandidates

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UN-NGLS facilitates a civil society Committee to short-list 30 questions for each dialogue from among those received to submit to the PGA. The Office of the PGA has so far chosen 33 of the short-listed questions to be asked of the candidates via video during the dialogues and the 12 July Global Townhall.

The first round of dialogues was held on 12-14 April with 9 candidates. The second round of dialogues was held on 7 June with 2 additional candidates. View the videos of civil society asking each candidate questions, and the candidates' responses here.

The President of the General Assembly has also asked all candidates to answer a set of 10 questions from civil society submitted through this process. These 10 questions and the candidate answers received so far are available here.